Revelation
by seffydude
Summary: The Doctor and Rose discover that the impossible isn't always definitive and this revelation leads them back to where it all started, and a shock that could change the Universe forever.
1. Chapter 1

Revelation.

Disclaimer:  
Doctor Who, it's characters and locations are the copyright property of the BBC. The Daleks are the copyright property of Terry Nation and his estate. I am not connected in any way to either parties and do not claim ownership of any copyrighted material. I have not received, nor do I expect to receive, any form of payment for this story. No copyright infringement is intended.  
The story 'Revelation' is mine, however, and may not be reproduced elsewhere without my permission.

Revelation includes Doctor #9, played on screen by Christopher Eccleston.

Part 1: White Cliffs.

Rose stepped out of the TARDIS onto a carpet of lush green grass. She had been here many times before, up on top of the White Cliffs Of Dover, and every time felt as fresh and invigorating as the first.

She looked around and grabbed her long blonde hair as the gusting wind threatened to blow it into her eyes. She saw the Doctor sitting on an iron fence right on the very edge of the cliff, seemingly oblivious to the two hundred foot drop and the gusting wind that was trying valiantly to blow him off the fence. She made her way over to him and leaned on the fence beside him, following his gaze out to sea. "It's a bit fresh out here, ain't it?" She asked cheerfully.

The Doctor grabbed the fence and looked down at her with raised eyebrows. "What you trying to do, have me over the edge?"

"It'd be your own fault anyway, sitting up there like that. They call it a safety fence for a reason you know, cos you're supposed to stay on this side of it," she put two fingers of both hands into the air and bent them to emphasize her words, "where it's safe."

The Doctor looked down at her, a bemused look on his face. "Do you nag everyone like this?" He asked.

"It's the Mother in me." Replied Rose with a grin.

"I don't know how Mickey puts up with it." Said the Doctor, looking out to sea again.

"Oy, I can kick you off that thing you know!" She said with a grin. She grabbed a handful of her hair again as she looked up at him. "What 'are' you doing up there anyway?"

The Doctor nodded out towards the distant horizon with his head. "Just look at it, it's amazing!" He exclaimed in an awed voice.

Rose looked out at the white capped waves of the English Channel and the barely perceptible curve of the distant horizon. "You've stood on planets with three moons in the sky, stood on moons with a planet in the sky, and you think this is amazing?"

"Hey, you don't get views like this everywhere you know. Besides, when you've seen one Tri-moon system, you've seen them all." The Doctor swung his legs over the fence and suddenly made a grab for the fence as he over-balanced towards the cliff edge.

Rose made to grab him before he toppled over. She was on the verge of calling out his name when she saw an impish smile splitting his face.

"I had you then." He said, the smile quickly becoming a grin.

"Nope, no you didn't." Replied Rose as she turned away from him so he couldn't see the blush on her cheeks.

"Yeah I did, I had you. Admit it."

Rose thrust her hands into her jacket pocket as she started back towards the TARDIS. "Nope, you'll have to get up a lot earlier if you want to catch me like that."

"Get up earlier?" Said the Doctor with a frown. "When have you ever seen me sleeping?"

They were still teasing each other when the TARDIS materialised in London a short time later. As Rose headed for the door, she turned to the Doctor. "Are you coming?"

"What, to listen to Mickey The Idiot plead with you to stay with him again? No thanks. I got some work I need to do on the TARDIS."

The beginning of a smile appeared on Rose's face. "He's not that bad you know."

The Doctor looked up from the main console. "No, he's not." He said, a trace of sincerity creeping into his tone. "There's a lot worse than Mickey out there, believe me. Just don't tell him I said that, alright?"

"Promise." Replied Rose with a laugh.

"Now, go tell Mickey how cute 'you' think he is and how much of an idiot 'I' think he is, and I'll see you tomorrow."

Rose smiled as she turned and ran out of the TARDIS.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2. Discovery.

The next day saw Rose burst into the TARDIS with all the enthusiasm of a ten year old child on Christmas morning. "Good morning!" She called, a wide grin splitting her face.

"Someone sounds happy." Replied the Doctor from beneath the TARDIS ' main console.

"Haven't you noticed? I'm naturally exuberant." Said Rose in a posh accent.

"If it's anything to do with Mickey The Idiot, last night, I don't want to know."

"Oy, cheeky." Rose jumped up onto the podium and leaned onto the main console to see what the Doctor was doing. "Can I help?" 

"Nope," said the Doctor as he crawled out from beneath the console, "all done." He stood up and looked up the central column of the console. "Right! Where do you want to go? Pick anywhere in the Universe?" He said with a grin. 

"We-ll, now you mention it, there is one place I wouldn't mind going." She bit her bottom lip as she looked up at the Doctor.

The Doctor cocked his head back and looked down at Rose with a frown. "Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like this." He said, though it was hardly a question.

"Well, you did say pick anywhere." Said Rose, drawing an invisible picture on the console with her finger.

The Doctor let his head nod forwards again and folded his arms as he gazed at Rose. "Go on, pick anywhere."

"Gallifrey."

"Pick again." Replied the Doctor immediately.

"Oh come on?" Said Rose as she moved around the console to stand before the Doctor. "You've seen my world, now I want to see yours." 

"You can't. It's gone, destroyed." The Doctor moved around the console pushing various buttons and pushing and pulling levers.

"How do you know?" Asked Rose, refusing to be shaken off.

"Trust me, I know. Pick again." Replied the Doctor without looking at Rose.

"We've got a Time Machine, we can...!"

"No!" Shouted the Doctor, though he didn't really mean to shout and instantly regretted it. He looked at Rose, who had been shocked into silence and was just standing there, looking at him. He moved over and sat back on the console next to her. When he spoke, his voice was calm but very quiet. "It was a Time War, Rose. When Gallifrey was destroyed, it was destroyed throughout time as well. It was erased from existence as though it had never been. There's nothing to go to and, in effect, there never was."

"But, wouldn't that mean that anything that came from there, you for example, would cease to exist as well?" Asked Rose.

The Doctor looked down at her with raised eyebrows. He always under-estimated just how intelligent she was for some reason. "I was protected, by the TARDIS amongst other things."

"What happened?" Asked Rose tentatively. "If you don't mind me asking?" She added quickly.

The Doctor turned his gaze to the floor and it changed from one of thought to one of sorrow. "The Time Lords were a powerful race who had mastered Time itself. And when I say mastered, I mean 'mastered'. We didn't just travel through Time, we could bend it, shape it. In effect, we could 'make' time. Have you any idea what that meant?"

Rose thought for a moment. "It would mean you could make or destroy anything, anywhere, in any time."

The Doctor nodded his head appreciatively. "We could mould the Universe, Existence in it's entirety, to our own designs."

"But, that's unthinkable!" Said Rose in a shocked tone.

"Exactly. That's exactly what the Time Lords thought. That's why, instead of being the Creators of Time, we became it's Guardians. We allowed time to pass as it should and strove to keep it that way. Whenever something happened that shouldn't have, we knew about it and we went and fixed it. But others learned of the Time Lords and of the power and knowledge they possessed and they wanted it for themselves."

"The Daleks?" Asked Rose, thinking back to Henry Van Statten's alien Museum.

The Doctor nodded his head. "They were the worst. The Daleks had been experimenting with Time on their home planet of Skaro. They found out about the Time Lords and where Gallifrey was and brought their entire race to take it, millions of ships with billions of Daleks inside them. Not even the Time Lords could stand against the sheer numbers and power of the entire Dalek race. Oh, we held them off for a while, longer than some of us even thought possible. But, eventually, it became obvious that we were losing the war. So, we decided on a final course of action, a last Great Master plan. If the knowledge of the Time Lords were to fall into the hands of the Daleks, the Universe, Existence and everything in it, would be in unspeakable danger. So, the only thing we could do was to destroy it, destroy everything. We sent a number of ships out into The Void, a region in-between realities. Each of those ships had a controller for a Time Nexus, a device of incredible power that can shape the very fabric of time and reality. Our mission was to open the Nexus and erase Gallifrey and everything in Gallfrey's Solar System from Time, taking all the Daleks with them. What we didn't know was that the Daleks were in The Void as well, waiting. All our ships in The Void were destroyed. All except one."

"The TARDIS." Said Rose in a hushed voice.

The Doctor nodded his head and sighed before continuing. "I created a gravity wave that pushed all the Dalek ships back into our reality. Then," he paused for a moment, "then I opened the Nexus. I needed the power of a small Supernova to generate the power to open the Nexus, so I destroyed Gallifrey's Sun. Then, while my home and it's Solar System burned, I opened the Nexus and allowed it to swallow it, swallow everything." He suddenly jerked his head up and closed his eyes, as though afraid that the fiery maelstrom in his vision would burn him even now. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before opening his eyes and looking down at Rose. "So, you see, I know Gallifrey doesn't exist because I destroyed it. My planet, my people, everything." He looked back at the floor. "I destroyed them all."

"But the Dalek in Van Statten's museum survived." Said Rose, but the tone of her voice showed that she was no longer arguing to go to Gallifrey, now she was arguing to give the Doctor something. Maybe it was hope, maybe it was peace of mind. In truth, not even Rose herself knew what it was. She just knew she wanted to give him something. "You said it had fallen through Time or something."

The Doctor nodded. "One Dalek out of billions, and the odds of that one surviving were astronomical. The odds of a whole planet surviving, intact, would be incalculable, even for me." The Doctor folded his arms and looked at Rose, some of his usual energy returning in his gaze, as if he had placed all his demons behind him once again. "There is a way to prove it you know. The TARDIS was fitted with an Emergency Recall device. It was designed to send the TARDIS back to Gallifrey automatically if I was too injured to input the co-ordinates, or dead. One push of a button and off it goes." The Doctor indicated a control panel, next to Rose, with a nod of his head. "Red button, bottom line."

Rose looked uncertainly at the button. "To be honest, I don't think I...!" 

"Well go on, I'm curious now." Said the Doctor. "Nothing will happen. You're telling the TARDIS to go somewhere that doesn't exist, so it has no where to lock on to."

Rose looked up at the Doctor and held his gaze before looking back at the inoffensive red button on the control panel. She then took a deep breath and steeled herself before pressing the button.

The TARDIS remained silent and motionless

The Doctor grinned manically. "See! If the TARDIS can't...!"

The Control Room was suddenly bathed in green light as the crystal plunger in the central column began to move. The Doctor leapt off the control console and turned, staring up at the central column with his mouth open in shock.

Rose had to shout to be heard over the noise as the TARDIS began to feed power into it's engines and into the Temporal Drive. "Doctor, what's happening? What does it mean?"

The Doctor watched the plunger in the central column as it began to move faster and faster, pumping the necessary energy into the ship to enable it to cross time and space. "It means..., it means I'm going home!" He looked at Rose, a mixture of shock and wonder in his eyes. "I'd take a seat if I were you, we're in for a long ride."

Rose leaned back against the wall and slowly slid down it to sit on the floor. Not for the first time, she wondered just what she had done.


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3. Home Fires Burning

Rose looked up at the Doctor's back as he gazed intently at the crystal plunger in the central column. "How far is it to Gallifrey?" She asked after a while. She knew the Doctor was apprehensive about returning home and her subdued voice reflected his apprehension. 

"Two hundred and fifty million light years." Replied the Doctor without turning.

"Two hundred and fifty 'million'?" Said Rose, emphasizing the word 'million'. 

The Doctor turned and grinned. "Give or take the odd mile, yeah."

"What will we find when we get there?" Asked Rose.

"Nothing." Replied the Doctor, his attention back on the central column.

"Care to elaborate?"

"Alright, lots of nothing." Said the Doctor, turning again. "I expect to find a debris field, nothing more. The TARDIS probably recognises it as Gallifrey and has locked on."

"Tell me about Gallifrey."

The Doctor looked down and a thin smile spread across his lips. "It was an amazing place. The sky was a burnt orange colour and there were silver trees that used to shimmer in the wind. Fantastic. And there was always so much going on, it was impossible to get bored." The Doctor shook his head as memories flooded his mind.

"Where was you born?"

"Gallifrey." Replied the Doctor.

"Yeah, I know that." Said Rose with a chuckle. "Where, on Gallifrey?"

"No, the city of Gallifrey." Explained the Doctor.

Rose looked up at him. "You named a city after your planet?" She asked incredulously.

"What's the capital of Singapore?" 

"Erm, I'm not sure." Replied Rose after a moment's thought.

"Singapore." Said the Doctor. "What's the capital of Kuwait?" When silence had ruled for a few moments, the Doctor answered for her. "Kuwait City. It's the same thing, only we went a little bit bigger." He suddenly looked back at the plunger as the tone of the TARDIS ' engines changed pitch. "We're landing." He said, sounding surprised.

"That was fast." Said Rose as she stood up.

"Too fast." Said the Doctor. "We should be no where near Gallifrey yet."

As the Temporal Drive, and then the engines, shut down, the Doctor locked all the systems down and headed for the door without saying anything else. However, once he'd reached the door and put his hand on the door handle, he stopped and looked up at the door frame, as if he was struggling to open the door. After a moment, he steeled himself and pulled the door open. Then he did what he never thought he would do again, he stepped out onto his home world.

Outside the TARDIS, the Doctor gazed impassively at the bleak and desolate landscape around him. He crouched down and picked up a handful of ash and dust that covered everything like a black shroud. For a brief moment, he saw again the burnt orange sky and the shimmering silver trees. Then the vision was gone and all that was left was the desolate landscape of a burned and ruined world. He opened his hand and allowed the powdery dust and ash to fall through his fingers, only really seeing the last of it as it drifted away. He turned his head slightly as he sensed Rose standing behind him in the doorway of the TARDIS. "It was beautiful once," he said as he looked up at the grey sky above him, "so rich and vibrant. It was as though the planet itself had life. Now? Now it's dead, just one big grave. A giant Mausoleum of my own creating."

Standing in the doorway, Rose felt a wave of pity and remorse sweep over her. She didn't know what to say, yet felt compelled to say something. She hated seeing the Doctor suffering like this. "Doctor, we haven't really been together for very long, but I know you well enough to know that you don't do anything without good reason. If there had been any other way, even a slim chance of doing it differently, you would have done it. I realise the enormity of what you did here, believe me I do. But you have nothing to blame yourself over."

The Doctor stood up, looking down at the ground as he did and then turned and looked at Rose. "Thank you." He said and gave her a brief, yet sorrowful smile before turning away again. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before turning back to Rose. "Well, we'd better go have a look around I suppose." He said, some of his old energy returning in his voice. "It would be a shame to come all this way for nothing. The air's a bit thin, and we've got quite a distance to walk, but we should be alright as long as we take our time." He grinned at Rose, more for her benefit than his, but it was a start.

Rose saw him grin at her and this grin was all Doctor. She smiled and stepped out of the TARDIS doorway, pulling the door closed behind her. She took the arm the Doctor offered her and instantly felt better knowing the old Doctor was back again. 

Because of the thin atmosphere, they strolled rather than walked. To conserve their energy and make breathing easier, they kept the conversation to a bare minimum, which was actually rather easy considering all the choking dust and ash their footfalls kicked up, not to mention the depressing bleakness of their surroundings. It felt as though they had been walking for hours when they came to a steep rise. Taking a moment to catch their breath at the foot of the rise, the Doctor turned to Rose and, in a gasping voice, said "The city of.. Gallifrey is just.. over this hill. We can.. have a proper.. rest once we're inside.. the city."

Rose simply nodded her head at him, too tired to speak. Yet she pushed herself on as she followed the Doctor up the hill, sometimes dragging herself on all fours in order to keep up with him. However, once they crested the hill, all feelings of exhaustion evaporated. Spreading away from them, as far as the eye could see, was the ruins of a vast city, the city of Gallifrey. A lot of the buildings had been totally destroyed, but a surprising number were still standing, though none had escaped without some form of damage. Black, glass-less windows, looking like empty eye sockets, gazed impassively out over ruins of cracked and shattered concrete and twisted metal. Here and there, the grid of city streets and roads could still be seen among the debris of fallen buildings. The one thing that was missing, however, was the glory and sheer majesty that the city of Gallifrey had undoubtedly once had. That, along with the civilisation that had created it, had been obliterated by the raw destructive power of the great Time Nexus. 

The sound of the Doctors voice brought Rose back to the present with a jolt. "It looks like we were right. The Daleks did make it to the planet's surface." When Rose turned a questioning look on him, the Doctor simply indicated behind her with a nod of his head.

Rose turned and stumbled backwards in shock to stand on the other side of the Doctor. On a thin ledge, gazing out over the ruined city, stood a lone Dalek, it's darkened eyestalk looking down at the ruins before it and it's silhouette motionless against the dark, grey-hued sky.

"Don't worry, it's dead." Said the Doctor in an even voice. "It's probably stood there like that for centuries."

"Are you sure?" Asked Rose nervously. "How do you know?" 

"It's covered in dust and ash and the ground around it hasn't been disturbed. Besides, it's internal power cell won't last for long and with no way to recharge it..!" He left the sentence unfinished. "Come on. There's some things I need to check and they're deep inside the city. We still have a long way to go." 

Rose looked back at the shell of the Dalek before following the Doctor down the hill with both of them kicking up a great plume of dust and ash as they slipped and slid down the steep hill.

When they reached the bottom of the hill and broke the city's boundaries, two lights flashed dimly below a thick layer of ash up on top of the hill and a monotone, electronic voice spoke. "Int-rud-er al-ert! Sec-tor se-ven, Krall three! All Dal-eks con-verge! Ex-ter-min-ate, ex-ter-min-ate, ex-ter-min-aaaate!"


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4: Enemies Within.

If the walk to the city had been exhausting in the thin atmosphere, the going inside the ruined city was even worse. At least the hills they had climbed to get here didn't crumble and give way underfoot, not like the hills of rubble they had to climb inside the city.

As they progressed and made their way deeper into the city, Rose began to wonder if the Doctor knew where he was going and, if he did, how? Looking around at the devastated city, it was impossible to imagine what it must have looked like before the war, even though she tried hard to in an attempt to ignore the choking dust and the acrid smell of the ash. After what seemed like an eternity, but had actually been less than an hour, Rose couldn't carry on. "Doctor, wait." She gasped. "I need.. to rest, just for.. five minutes."

The Doctor looked at her, beads of sweat digging channels through the grime that clung to his face, and nodded. "Alright. Put your hands.. on your knees and.. take deep breaths, slowly. It'll help.. get your breath back."

Rose did as she was told and almost choked on the dust. "How.. how much further?"

The Doctor looked in the direction they were heading and stared. "We need to get.. to the center.. of the city, to The Penopticon." When he saw Rose give him a questioning look, he took a deep breath and slowly let it out before continuing. "The area at the center of the city.. is called The Penopticon." He took another deep breath and stood up straight as he let it out again. Tired muscles complained at the sudden movement but he ignored the discomfort. "The Penopticon was the hub, if you like, of the Time Lords power. Most of what we did, we did in The Penopticon."

Rose followed his example and, after taking a deep breath, stood up straight as she exhaled. Despite her muscles telling her that they weren't happy, she did feel a little better. "So that's what we're here to see, The Penoptiwhatsit?"

The Doctor smiled. "Penopticon. Sort of, yes. I need to see 'The Eye Of Harmony'."

"What's The Eye Of Harmony?" Asked Rose as she moved towards, and sat down on, a large chunk of fallen masonry.

The Doctor came over and sat down beside her. "The Eye Of Harmony is like a power source. It's what a TARDIS draws its power from, even across time and space. The Eye is the nucleus of a Black Hole. It was captured and brought to Gallifrey by Rasillon, the founder of the Time Lords. Without The Eye Of Harmony, we would never have achieved time travel."

Rose had a look of wonder on her face. "The TARDIS is powered by a Black Hole?"

The Doctor nodded. "There are other ways of powering it, or, at least, re-charging it. But yeah, its main source of power is, or was, The Eye Of Harmony. A Black Hole."

"That's incredible." Said Rose. "Well, I suppose Mickey won that one."

The Doctor frowned. "Won what?"

"He said it was Nuclear." Replied Rose.

The Doctor stifled a derisive laugh. "You lot and your Nuclear power. You think it's the answer for everything." He said with a shake of his head. Then he frowned again. "What did you say?"

"Solar!" Said Rose.

"Solar?" Said the Doctor incredulously. "In space?"

"What? Have you seen how many stars there are out there?" Said Rose defensively.

"Have you seen how dark it is out there?" Replied the Doctor. "Besides, Solar power needs Capacitors that need to be charged up, like re-charging a battery. Have you any idea how many batteries it would take to power the TARDIS?"

Rose grinned. "A couple of Double A's!"

The Doctor laughed and looked at Rose. "Double A's?"

"Maybe a couple of those square nine volt ones." Said Rose, also laughing.

The Doctor laughed again, but suddenly stopped and turned to look towards the center of the city.

Rose also stopped laughing and she turned her gaze to follow the Doctor's. "Doctor, what is it?" She said quietly.

"Did you hear something then?" 

"What? No, I didn't hear anything." Said Rose. She strained her ears, trying to pick out even the slightest sound out of the gaunt quiet. But there was nothing, nothing but the silence of a dead world where not even the wind blew. "I don't hear anything." She whispered.

The Doctor shook his head and was about to speak when there was a blast that seemed to come from all around them. Both of them ducked initially, before jumping up and staggering forward as ash and dust erupted all around them, choking them and leaving then half blind. As the dust began to thin and settle once more, the Doctor and Rose peered into the thinning grey cloud and neither could quite believe what they were seeing. Both of them had been looking at the city, trying to see if anything was moving amongst the ruined buildings.

It didn't occur to either of them to look up.

Some twenty Daleks were slowly descending in a circle, surrounding the Doctor and Rose, their eye-stalks and weapons aiming down at the two companions. When one of the Daleks spoke, it's stoccato voice seemed deafening to ears that had become used to the silence.

"Do not move! You are Pri-son-ers of the Dal-eks! Att-empt to esc-ape and you will be ex-ter-min-ated!"


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5: In The Lion's Den.

In the swirling dust, Rose blindly reached out and grabbed the Doctor's arm. There was only two things she was acutely aware of, that they were surrounded by Daleks and that she had to fight like she had never fought before against the rising tide of fear and panic that was welling up inside her. "Doctor, what do we do?" She shouted, the sound of her voice shrill in her ears.

"We don't do anything, not yet." Said the Doctor, his own voice calm as he took a hold of Rose's arm. He could hear the fear in her voice and that bothered him more than anything. "Look, it's alright. I'll take care of it, don't worry." He waited for the blinding dust cloud to subside a little and then stepped away from Rose. He knew that the Daleks would have no compulsion against firing at him and he didn't want Rose caught in it. Then his own mischievousness broke through as he suddenly grinned at the Dalek closest to him. "Hello." He said brightly, even giving a short wave of his hand. "My friend and I seem to be a little lost. We came across this rogue planet and thought we'd stop for directions. But, we can see you're busy, so we'll just be on our way and..!"

"You are Ka Fa-raq Ga-tri!" Screamed the Dalek. "You are the Doc-tor!"

The Doctor's face changed in an instant and he spoke words that were edged in steel. "Yes! I 'am' Ka Faraq Gatri! I 'am' The Oncoming Storm! You will tell me what you and your kind are doing on a world you are forbidden to walk?"

The Dalek rose slightly before descending to hover just above the surface. "You will come with us." It said, no longing screaming.

"Why should I?" Replied the Doctor, glaring at the Dalek.

"To save the life of the fe-male."

"Fair enough," said the Doctor conversationally, "lead the way." He walked back to Rose and took hold of her hand, turning her and following after some of the hovering Daleks that had turned and were heading into the ruins. "Don't worry, if they wanted us dead, they would have killed us by now. They want something from us and that gives us time."

"There's irony for you." Said Rose with a nervous smile as she gripped the Doctor's hand tightly. "Here we are, on the planet of the Time Lords, and the Daleks are giving us time."

A smile spread across the Doctor's face as her words sank in. "Yeah." He said as he started to laugh. 

They followed the leading Daleks through the ruins of Gallifrey until, a short time later, the Daleks turned and faced the group. "You will en-ter here!" Said one of the Daleks, it's blue-glowing eye stalk gazing impassively down at them.

"Enter what?" Asked the Doctor. Just then, the dust and ash in front of him began to bulge and then split as a large silver cylinder rose up. When it stopped, a door silently slid open. The Doctor looked up at the Dalek. "The sewer?"

"Move!"

The Doctor shrugged and walked up to the cylinder. There was no floor in the cylinder, just a ladder that led down into total darkness. Holding onto the sides of the door, he backed into the cylinder and stepped onto the ladder. "Just follow me down." He said to Rose as he began his descent. He heard Rose step onto the ladder above him as climbed further down. Before long, he reached the bottom and found himself in total darkness. He also a large number of familiar blue glowing orbs surrounding him. "Hello. It's a bit dark down here ain't it? We could do with a bit of..," bright light suddenly flooded the tunnel and the Doctor had to close his eyes from the sudden glare, "..light?"

"You will fol-low!" Said one of the Daleks when Rose arrived in the sewer.

Rose looked around at the tunnel they were in. It was unlike any sewer she had ever heard of. The floor of the square shaped sewer was made of large steel plates and the roof was lined in copper. Although the wall looked a little dirty, there was, thankfully, a distinct lack of anything else usually associated with sewers. She felt the Doctor's hand slide into hers and was immensely grateful for it. She gave him a weak smile.

They followed the Daleks in silence as they walked down one metal lined corridor after another. The going was much easier down here, away from the rubble choked streets above, and, ironically, a lot cleaner. Eventually, after walking for at least an hour, they came to a wide cavern that was filled with various pieces of electronic equipment, all with Daleks maintaining them.

"Here are the pri-son-ers!" Announced one of the Daleks.

From out of a large cubical off to their right, a white and gold coloured Dalek appeared and glided over to stop before the Doctor and Rose. The Doctor looked at it with a mixture of confusion and contempt. "You're an Imperial Dalek, you should be dead. How did you survive the Time War?"

The Dalek spoke in a very deep electronic voice. "Did you think you could des-troy the Dal-ek race?"

"It's not possible. There's no way you could survive the Nexus."

"The en-tire Dal-ek fleet gen-er-at-ed a shield to pro-tect one ship and this plan-et! We surv-ived while the Time Lords burned!"

"No!" Shouted the Doctor as he ran forward. He stopped just short of the Dalek and glared into the baleful blue-glowing eye stalk. "I watched it happen, I saw you destroyed. I killed your entire race!" 

"You fai-led!" Said the Dalek slowly.

Watching from behind the Doctor, Rose could feel herself losing to the fear that was threatening to overwhelm her. She looked around her, at the watching Daleks, and could feel their malevolence towards the Doctor as a physical force. He had killed billions of them in one go and now here they were, surrounded by the survivors, all that remained of an entire race. True, the Doctor was the last of his kind as well. The difference was, the Doctor and the Time Lords weren't evil. In the end, she could hold herself no longer. "What do you want?" She said, struggling to keep her voice steady. "What do you want with us?"

The Imperial Dalek swivelled it's domed head to face her. "The Dal-eks will have time tra-vel! The Eye Of Har-mon-ey is sil-ent! The Time Lord will sta-rt it ag-ain!" 

"Never!" Shouted the Doctor. He was aware of Daleks moving in all around him, but he ignored them. "I'll die before I give The Eye Of Harmony to you." He growled.

Rose suddenly cried out as she felt cold metal on her wrists. Two Daleks with pincers instead of suckers on one of their arms had moved up and taken station on either side of her. Now, they had both grabbed an arm each and held Rose with her arms out wide to the side. "Doctor?" She called as she pulled against the Daleks, but they remained immovable no matter how hard she struggled.

The Doctor spun around to face the Imperial Dalek. When he spoke, his voice was dreadfully quiet. "Let.. her.. go!"

"You may die, Doc-tor, but the fe-male will die be-fore you!"

Rose saw a Dalek take up position in between herself and the Doctor. She watched in horror as it's weapon lifted slightly to aim directly at her and she just had time to scream as it suddenly opened fire.


	6. Chapter 6

Part 6: Dalek Ascendant.

Rose felt as though her bones were on fire inside her. Waves of searing pain coursed through her, paralysing her, not even allowing her to scream. Every muscled spasmed, every nerve flared and pulsed. And through it all, the Dalek continued to fire, relentless and merciless.

The Doctor spun around to face the Imperial Dalek. "Stop!" He shouted. "You kill her, you get nothing! I swear it!"

"She will not die!" Replied the Dalek, it's base monotone voice devoid of all emotion. "Yet!"

The Doctor looked back at Rose again and the vision of her standing there, her body rigid and her face showing nothing but agony and terror, burned itself onto his mind. He was faced with a simple choice, save the Universe or save Rose Tyler.

The decision was made in an instant.

"Alright, I'll give you what you want! Now call it off!" He shouted. 

Instantly, the Dalek ceased it's onslaught. As soon as the Dalek stopped firing it's weapon, Rose's body went limp and she collapsed. Only the Daleks holding her arms stopped her from falling to the floor.

Straight away the Doctor ran over to her and cupped her face with his hands. "Rose?" He said, his voice betraying his concern and his fear. But there was no response. "Rose!" He shouted and felt for a pulse. He was relieved to find that she was still alive, but he had no idea how badly she had been hurt.

"Take the pri-son-er to a cell!" Ordered the Imperial Dalek.

"No! I'll take her." The Doctor looked up at the two Daleks before him. "Let her go." The Daleks released Rose and the Doctor caught her and lifted her in his arms.

"You will fol-low!" Ordered one of the Daleks as it turned and headed towards one of the tunnels.

The Doctor followed as the Dalek led him to, what was once, a storeroom not too far away from the main chamber. The room had been fitted with an electronic lock and, when the Dalek opened the door, the Doctor entered. He lay Rose gently down on a metal table, then gathered some old sacks, rolled them up and put them under her head. "Rose?" He said quietly. "Rose, I don't now if you can hear me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for getting you into this, for what's happened to you." He looked down at her closed eyes and stroked her cheek with his finger tips. "I promised I'd look after you and I failed. But I'll fix this. I will fix this, that much I can promise you. I'll be back for you as soon...!"

"Doctor?" Said Rose weakly.

The Doctor put his face closer to hers. "Yes. Rose, I'm here. You're alright. You're gonna be alright." 

"Doctor, what... what's happening?" Said Rose as she tried to sit up.

"No, lie still." Said the Doctor as he gently pushed her back down again. "You get some sleep, you'll feel better when you wake up. Doctor's orders." He put the thumb and little finger of his right hand against Rose's forehead and then closed his eyes in concentration.

A feeling of warmth and comfort flooded through Rose. She felt herself being lulled into sleep and felt safe and content in the Doctor's presence. She gave herself over to a dreamless sleep without a struggle. 

Satisfied that she was sleeping soundly, the Doctor stood straight. He moved a strand of blonde hair from Rose's face as he gazed down at her before turning and walking out of the room. He heard the Dalek close and lock the door behind him and didn't even bother to look at it. Instead he strode back into the main chamber and saw the Imperial Dalek where he had left it. "Right!" He bellowed, his voice booming in the large chamber. "The Eye Of Harmony is it?" He indicated a tunnel ahead and just off to his left. "This way I believe."

Just before he entered the tunnel, his hand shot out and grabbed the eye stalk of the Dalek who had fired it's weapon at Rose and pulled it around to face him. "Don't go anywhere." He growled before releasing it and disappearing down the tunnel with the Imperial Dalek close behind him.

"The Eye Of Harmony will be cold," he said to the Dalek without looking at it, "it's going to take a lot of power to charge it up and get it going again. How are you planning on doing this?"

"The pow-er gen-er-ator on our space-ship!" Replied the Dalek, it's flashing lights on the side of its domed head reflecting on the walls of the tunnel.

"Not enough." Said the Doctor, again without turning.

"There are three gen-er-ators avai-lable!"

"That might do it. I'll need to calibrate the generators to start sequentially. I'll also need to re-calibrate the Resonance Field Matrix, otherwise the Eye will just revert to a Black Hole again and that wouldn't be good for any of us."

"I will pro-vide Drones to as-sist!"

"Do they know what to do?" 

"Neg-a-tive!"

The Doctor leapt onto a ladder just in front of him and turned to face the Imperial Dalek. "Then tell them to stay out of my way." He said before climbing up the ladder to emerge in front of the Penopticon. To the side of the Penopticon stood the huge, saucer shaped, Dalek spacecraft. A large ramp had been lowered beneath it and large black cables snaked from it into the Penopticon.

As the Imperial Dalek emerged from the sewer entrance, the Doctor blocked it's path. "I'll give you what you want. I'll give the Daleks Time Travel. When I do, Rose goes free. You let her go, unharmed." 

"A-greed!"

"Right then." Said the Doctor with a grin. He turned around and stalked up the ramp into the Dalek ship. He marched straight up to the generators and began pulling cables out and reconnecting them to different power points. He then began removing various components and replacing them with other parts. After a while, he left the ship and entered the ruined Penopticon.

The Eye Of Harmony was held in a huge basin made of Taranium, a very rare metal alloy. In the center of the basin stood three curved Taranium prongs, twelve feet high and twenty feet apart. In the exact center of the prongs, floating six feet off the floor, was a small dark object no bigger than a small pebble. This was the Eye Of Harmony, all seven hundred and fifty thousand tons of it.

The Doctor gazed impassively down at the Eye. "It will take time to build up the necessary power, even with three generators." He said to the ever-present Imperial Dalek without looking at it.

"Pro-ceed!"

The Doctor busied himself. Calibrating the Resonance Field Matrix took the longest time. At one point, the main console blew, erupting in a shower of sparks. The Doctor said that it was probably down to age and contamination from dust and ash wouldn't have helped either. By the time he had repaired and, in some cases, replaced the console, he was struggling to catch his breath in the thin atmosphere.

However, after a couple of hours, he was finished. He turned to the Imperial Dalek. "Tell your Drones to start the first generator and to prime the other two. Once the first is fired up, the rest is automatic."

"It is be-gin-ning!" Said the Dalek. "We dis-cov-ered the cab-les you con-nec-ted to gen-er-ators two and three! You're at-tempt at sob-o-tage has failed!"

Various control panels around the basin slowly came to life and the Doctor watched as dim control lights steadily grew brighter. Satisfied, the Doctor walked up to the Imperial Dalek and stared into its eye-stalk. "I wouldn't have been me if I didn't try, now would I?" He said quietly. He indicated behind him with a nod of his head. "It's begun, the Eye is charging up. Now, I have to say goodbye to Rose." With that, he walked off without waiting for a response from the Dalek.

Back in the chamber, he ordered one of the Daleks to open the cell door and, when he entered, he saw Rose sitting on the edge of the table. He had to admit, he had never been so happy to see her.

"Doctor!" Said Rose, smiling warmly as she jumped off the table and walked over to him.

"How are you feeling?" He asked as he turned and watched the door close behind him before embracing Rose. 

"I'm alright, really." She replied as she hugged him back. When she released him, she looked up at him. "What's happening? What's going on?"

The Doctor moved over to the table and cupped his hands around his ears to tell Rose that the Daleks were probably listening. "I've restarted the Eye Of Harmony." He said, rolling his hands to tell Rose to play along. He then began pulling small bits and pieces of machinery from his pockets.

"What? You can't!" Said Rose aloud, then she mouthed the words 'What are you doing?'

"I had no choice, they would have killed you." Said the Doctor, then he mouthed two simple words. 'Sonic Screwdriver'.


	7. Chapter 7

Part 7: Deus Ex Machina.

Even though her mind was still fogged up from the recent trauma she had endured and the forced sleep that followed it, Rose still had the presence of mind to get what the Doctor was doing. So she started rambling, just talking about anything that came to mind, which was mostly complaining about, and insulting, the Daleks while stalking backwards and forwards in the cell.

The Doctor, while listening to what Rose was saying, soon finished the hastily constructed Sonic Screwdriver. He activated it and scanned the walls, locating at least three listening devices hidden around the room. He set the devices to build up a static charge which would appear to be interference from the surrounding EM Field and then moved over to the door and unlocked it. Then he folded his arms, leaned against the door frame and watched Rose pace.

When Rose finally noticed him, she held her arms out to the side in a gesture that said 'What you doing?'

"All done." Said the Doctor with a smile. "You feel better now?"

Rose glanced around the room before making her way over to the Doctor. "What do we do now?"

"Now, we go." He said as he opened the door and checked to see if any Daleks could see them. He ducked back into the room and grabbed Rose's hand. "Come on." He said as he lead her out into the corridor.

Keeping low, they headed towards the chamber and ducked down behind a stack of crates. Rose looked up at the crates stacked above her and whispered, "How do Daleks manage to stack things?"

The Doctor turned and put his finger to his lips. When he looked back at the chamber, his head suddenly spun back to her and he gave her a quizzical look before returning his concentration to the chamber. A minute or two later, there was the sound of a near-by explosion. Although the sound of the explosion was muffled, the ground shook and dust cascaded down from the cracks between the copper plates on the ceiling. A siren began wailing and Rose grabbed the Doctor's arm. 

"What was that?" She hissed.

"That was the sound of a Dalek spaceship blowing up." Replied the Doctor with a glint in his eye. "Basically, I had four generators. I wired the second generator to the third and left it for the Daleks to find. Then I wired the fourth back to the first and hid the connection. I set the fourth generator to build up gradually so that I would have the time to get back here to you before it blew." He looked into the chamber and saw the Daleks milling around in confusion. "Now," he said as he looked back at Rose and indicated over his shoulder with his thumb, "there's no power running through the metal plates and those Daleks are running on their power cells, which won't last very long. Especially...!" He left the sentence hanging as he spotted the one thing he had been looking for. He turned back to Rose and the look on his face was grim. "Do not move from here!" He ordered.

With the look on his face and the tone of his voice, Rose dared not disobey him, so she watched him as he made his way into the chamber and take something out of his pocket.

Using the chaotic confusion to his advantage, The Doctor crept into the chamber and took out his make-shift Sonic Screwdriver from his pocket. When he was close to his quarry, he leapt out and, holding the Sonic Screwdriver like a dagger, he rammed it into the glowing orb of the Dalek's eye-stalk, smashing it and extinguishing the blue glow. "Told you I'd be back!" He growled.

Blinded, the Dalek went into a frenzy. "Al-arm! Al-arm! Pri-son-ers at-tack-ing! Ass-ist! Al-ert! Al-ert!" It screeched.

The Doctor grabbed the Dalek's weapon with one hand and the eye-stalk with the other and began manoeuvring it. He knew that if one thing could be said about the Daleks, it was that they were predictable. Their one instinct when attacked was to open fire with their weapon and the Doctor turned that to his advantage. As the Dalek began firing blindly, the Doctor pushed and pulled it around, targeting all the other Daleks in the chamber. Within the space of a single minute, all the other Daleks had been destroyed. As the ball of flame from the last exploding Dalek died away, another Dalek emerged from the tunnel that led to the Penopticon and began rolling down the ramp into the chamber. The Doctor pulled the still shooting Dalek around and the new Dalek erupted in a ball of flame and continued to roll into the chamber, colliding with the still smoking remains of another Dalek. 

Rose suddenly shouted. "Doctor, behind you!"

The Doctor pulled the weakening Dalek around as it fired again. By now the Daleks power cell was almost depleted and took two hits to detroy the new Dalek. After a few more shots blazed from the weapon, the Dalek stopped firing altogether and it's panic-stricken voice became drawn out and slurred.

The Doctor put his face close to the domed head of the Dalek. "I cut the power to this place. All that shooting has drained your power cell and you have no way of re-charging it. Now, I leave you to die. Alone. That is what you get for torturing a friend of mine."

"Heeeellllp meeeeeee."

The Doctor pushed the Dalek away and it rolled into the chamber where it bumped into the remains of one of it's brethren and remained motionless. He indicated for Rose to come to him. "We have to get back to the TARDIS and fast!" He said as he grabbed her hand and almost dragged her into a tunnel. 

"But you cut the power. The Daleks are dieing aren't they?" Asked Rose as she ran to keep up.

"Some of them will still have power in their cells. That one depleted it's cell quickly because of all the shooting it was doing. But the Daleks aren't the problem. I didn't hook up the Resonance Field Matrix. So, when the Eye Of Harmony builds up enough charge and flares, it will create another Black Hole and swallow this place, and the Daleks, in an instant. So, we have to go."

Rose didn't even bother answering. She ran down tunnel after tunnel, following where-ever the Doctor led her. Rose was amazed because, now that the power was cut, all the tunnels were in total darkness. Yet the Doctor knew exactly where to go and when to turn. Eventually, she could see a feint light ahead of her in the perpetual gloom.

"That's the entrance where we came in." Said the Doctor. "Quickly, follow me."

Rose almost ran up the ladder as, below her, there was a small explosion. Back in the tunnel, she could hear a Dalek screaming. "Pri-son-ers ha-lt! You will be ex-ter-min-ated!"

On the surface, the Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her along. "Come on!" He yelled. "I don't know how much time we have left, but it won't be much!" 

"Is it ever?" Shouted Rose.

Together, they ran through the ruins of the city of Gallifrey. After running through the darkness of the sewers, Rose never even questioned the Doctors sense of direction and, sure enough, she soon saw the hill they had slid down to get to the city.

There was a sudden explosion to the side of Rose and dust, ash and chunks of debris plumed into the air. Rose turned and saw three airborne Daleks closing in on them. "There's more of them!" She shouted.

"Just keep going!" Shouted the Doctor as more explosions erupted all around them.

They reached the bottom of the hill and began climbing. Rose glanced behind them just in time to see the pursuing Daleks fall out of the sky. The act of flying and shooting had rapidly depleted their power cells and now they smashed into the ground, nothing more than falling chunks of metal. "Hah, serves you right." Said Rose as she chased the Doctor up the hill. 

When they were half way up the hill, they saw a Dalek tumbling down the hill, crying out weakly as it passed them. They both watched it bounce pass them, looked at each other, raised their eyebrows and then continued up the hill.

When they reached the top, Rose had to stop to try and get some breath back in the thin atmosphere. They both looked back at the ruined city and could see the flames and smoke from the burning Dalek ship. However, instead of going straight up into the sky, the flames and smoke were curling over towards the Penopticon.

"The Eye is generating Gravity, it's starting to pull everything in. And it's building." Said the Doctor. Even from this distance, they could feel the effects of the growing Gravity Well. Rose could feel it tugging at her hair and dust and ash were beginning to stream towards the ruined city. "The Gravity Well will get stronger with every passing second. The Eye is getting ready to flare. We have to keep going." 

Rose nodded and ran after the Doctor. She felt as though she were being toyed with. That as soon as she felt safe for the first time since arriving here, then the Eye Of Harmony would flare and suck them in, crushing them to oblivion. The increasing strength of the Gravity Well didn't help either. By now, the streaming dust and ash was a blinding fog as it rushed past them, obscuring everything and choking as well as blinding them both.

By now, Rose was fighting against the pull of Gravity as well as the burn in her lungs and the terror in her soul. She often prided herself on her stamina and strength of spirit, but now she felt as though both had fled from her. "Doctor!" She shouted weakly as she fought for a choking breath. "I.. I can't..!" She said as she toppled forwards.

Then the Doctor was there. He lifted her up into his arms and ran on. How far he ran, Rose didn't know, but suddenly the choking ash, the blinding dust, the deafening howl of the debris rushing past them and the frantic pulling of the Gravity Well, all disappeared in an instant and, in the silence and calm that followed, Rose realised that they were inside the TARDIS. "I don't believe it." Said Rose, marvelling at the sight of the TARDIS all around her.

"Hold tight." Said the Doctor from the control console. Suddenly a familiar green light flared and the sound of the TARDIS ' engines kicked in.

As soon as the engines reached a certain pitch, Rose knew they were moving. "We did it!" She shouted, her jubilation rising.

"Not yet." Said the Doctor. He grabbed the console as the TARDIS suddenly bucked violently. The TARDIS shuddered and shook for a few moments, causing sparks to erupt from the console on the opposite side of the Doctor, then settled down again. The Doctor looked at Rose and a grin spread across his face. "Fantastic."

"We did it!" Shouted Rose as she jumped up, ran over to the Doctor and threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. Then she kissed him on his cheek.

The Doctor gave her a surprised look. "What was that for?"

"For coming back for me, and for not giving up on me." Said Rose quietly as she gazed at him. 

"Never." Said the Doctor before smiling again. 

Rose looked him up and down. "You're filthy." She said with a grin.

"Look who's talking." 

Revelation: Epilogue.

The Doctor walked into the control room with a towel around his neck and his hair still wet. He saw Rose, with similar wet hair, looking up at the viewer. "Do you feel better now?"

"Mmm, much." She replied, looking over at him and then turning back to the viewer. She frowned. "I can't see it."

"Can't see what?" Asked the Doctor as he rubbed an ear with the towel.

"The Black Hole."

"That's because it's pitch black out there and it's a 'Black' Hole."

"But I thought you could see the stuff around it?" Asked Rose.

"The Accretion Disc? That's matter that's been caught in the Gravity Well and is being pulled into the hole. That one isn't pulling any matter in just yet.

Rose thought for a moment. "Oh." She said simply before looking back at the viewer.

"Right!" Shouted the Doctor as he slapped his hands on the console. "I'm not asking you where 'you' want to go." He said in mock severity. He frowned as he looked down at the controls. "Ah, I know. Let's go... here!" He said as he punched in some co-ordinates.

As the engines cycled up and the TARDIS began moving, there was a loud bump and a jolt ran through the TARDIS. Rose looked at the Doctor. "Was that supposed to happen?" She asked.

The Doctor just shook his head. "No." 

"Could be a problem." Said Rose.

The Doctor nodded. "Could be."

Rose grinned. "Fantastic." 

The End.


End file.
